Venison Summer Sausage

bringing topic to top.

Wow, looks great! What did you use to mix the meats, spices? This is something I've always wanted to try but am a little intimidated to take the first steps.

Smokin',

Thanks for getting this posted for me. I do appreciate it!


Dennis,

Thanks!

There are a ton of summer sausage recipes out there. I started out with Eldon Cutlip's recipe:

http://www.eldonsausage.com/InfoPages/RecipesSpec.htm#Summer%20Sausage

From there, to get the taste I wanted it was just a matter of leaving an item or 2 out, adding a couple of spices, and changing the amounts of others. For instance, I added some cayenne the second time I made this. Then by the 4th time I made it I finally had the correct amount.

I started out making 5 lb. batches so the experimental stages wouldn't get to costly (and wasteful if it scored a big fat zero on the taste test.)

The cheese isn't in that recipe, but when I add it, I will add 10% of the total weight of the meat mixture. I.E. 10lbs. of meat gets 1 lb. of cheese. Instead of cheddar you can use pepper jack to heat it up some.

Don't be intimidated. Just give it a try. Its fun!

Looks like a pro job to me. Those chubs are just beautiful.

I've made sausage before but never smoked it. Any suggestions on what smoking times and woods for a sweet Italian breakfast link?

Thanks

Thanks Hook,

Oh yeah, real pro job. lol. Did you notice my "blooming station" consists of 2 kitchen chairs whose colors dont even match? But....I'm a true believer that into everyone's life, a little hillbilly must fall!


If you are buying store bought Itilian there wont be any curing agent in it. This means you'll want to turn the smoker on at about 170 and smoke until it, the sausage, reaches 160 or so and eat.

When done it will have a smokey taste, but wont be pink like regular smoked sausage.

Now if you are making your own Italian, try the following. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of TenderQuick per pound of meat to the spice mixture. More than likely this will allow you to omit whatever amount of salt your recipe calls for.

Stuff it like normal unless you are going to patty it, and stick it in the frige to cure overnight. Smoke the next day.

My time and temps go as follows:

100 degrees ~ 1hr. ~ Door cracked ~ No wood in wood box
100 degrees ~ 1hr. ~ Door closed ~ Wood added to wood box
125 degrees ~ 1hr. ~ Door closed remainder of the cook
150 degrees ~ 1hr.
170 degrees ~ Until the internal hits 152- 155.

The amount of time it smokes at 170 will vary with what size casing you are using. Sheep; Hog; 1.5", 2.5", or 4" fibrous. My 2.5" x 9" chubs generally take me between 7 & 8 hrs.



The wood is your choice.